Академический Документы
Профессиональный Документы
Культура Документы
This explanatory statement relates to the following individual codes of practice made under the Work
Health and Safety Act 2011 (the WHS Act):
1. Abrasive Blasting
2. Confined Spaces
3. Construction Work
4. Demolition Work
5. Excavation Work
6. First Aid in the Workplace
7. Hazardous Manual Tasks
8. How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace
9. How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks
10. How to Safely Remove Asbestos
11. Labelling of Workplace Hazardous Chemicals
12. Managing Electrical Risks at the Workplace
13. Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss
14. Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces
15. Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace
16. Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace
17. Managing the Work Environment and Facilities
18. Preventing Falls in Housing Construction
19. Safe Design of Structures
20. Preparation of Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals
21. Spray Painting and Powder Coating
22. Welding Processes
23. Work Health and Safety Consultation, Co-operation and Co-ordination
For the purposes of this explanatory statement, these 23 individual codes of practice have been
collectively referred to as the Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice (or the codes of practice).
Section 274 of the WHS Act provides, in part, that the Minister may approve a code of practice and may
vary or revoke an approved code of practice. An approved code of practice is admissible in proceedings
as evidence of whether or not a duty or obligation under the WHS Act has been complied with
(s 275(1)). A court may have regard to the code as evidence of what is known about a hazard or risk, risk
assessment or risk control to which the code relates and may rely on the code in determining what is
reasonably practicable in the circumstances to which the code relates (ss 275(2) and 275(3)).
Safe Work Australia has developed 23 model codes of practice for adoption by the Commonwealth, State
and Territory governments in accordance with the Inter-governmental Agreement for Regulatory and
Operational Reform in Occupational Health and Safety. The Commonwealth has previously adopted the
model codes of practice in two compilations, the Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice 2011 and
Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice 2012.
1
These compilations will be revoked and the codes of practice remade as 23 separate instruments to
improve accessibility of the codes on the ComLaw website and streamline the process for making future
updates to the codes.
The content of most of the codes of practice will remain unchanged. However, the following 17 codes of
practice have been revised and updated to correct minor technical and drafting errors:
Details of these amendments are listed in Attachment B and on the final page of each code of practice.
Prior to approving a code of practice, or varying or revoking an approved code of practice, the Minister
must be satisfied that the code of practice or variation or revocation has been developed in consultation
with the Commonwealth, State and Territory governments, unions and employer organisations (s 272(2)).
The revised codes of practice implement changes developed and agreed to by Safe Work Australia, which
is comprised of representatives from the Commonwealth, each State and Territory, the Australian Council
of Trade Unions, Australian Industry Group and the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
In accordance with subsections 274(5) and 274(6) of the WHS Act, the Minister has also notified the
revocation and approval of the codes of practice in newspapers and copies of the codes of practice (and
applied, adopted and incorporated documents) are available for inspection, without charge, at Comcare
offices during normal business hours.
A Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights has been completed for the codes of practice, in
accordance with the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny) Act 2011. The Statement’s assessment is
that the amendments in the codes of practice are compatible with human rights. A copy of the Statement
is at Attachment A.
The codes of practice are legislative instruments for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
The Office of Best Practice Regulation advised that a Regulation Impact Statement was not required
(OBPR ID: 19145).
2
The codes of practice commence the day after they are registered on the Federal Register of Legislative
Instruments.
3
ATTACHMENT A
This Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights relates to the following individual codes of practice
made under the Work Health and Safety Act 2011 (the WHS Act):
1. Abrasive Blasting
2. Confined Spaces
3. Construction Work
4. Demolition Work
5. Excavation Work
6. First Aid in the Workplace
7. Hazardous Manual Tasks
8. How to Manage and Control Asbestos in the Workplace
9. How to Manage Work Health and Safety Risks
10. How to Safely Remove Asbestos
11. Labelling of Workplace Hazardous Chemicals
12. Managing Electrical Risks at the Workplace
13. Managing Noise and Preventing Hearing Loss
14. Managing the Risk of Falls at Workplaces
15. Managing Risks of Hazardous Chemicals in the Workplace
16. Managing Risks of Plant in the Workplace
17. Managing the Work Environment and Facilities
18. Preventing Falls in Housing Construction
19. Safe Design of Structures
20. Preparation of Safety Data Sheets for Hazardous Chemicals
21. Spray Painting and Powder Coating
22. Welding Processes
23. Work Health and Safety Consultation, Co-operation and Co-ordination
For the purposes of this Statement of Compatibility with Human Rights, these 23 individual codes of
practice have been collectively referred to as the Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice (or the codes
of practice). The codes of practice are compatible with the human rights and freedoms recognised or
declared in the international instruments listed in section 3 of the Human Rights (Parliamentary Scrutiny)
Act 2011.
Safe Work Australia has developed 23 model codes of practice for adoption by the Commonwealth, State
and Territory governments in accordance with the Inter-governmental Agreement for Regulatory and
Operational Reform in Occupational Health and Safety. The Commonwealth has previously adopted the
model codes of practice in two compilations, the Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice 2011 and
Work Health and Safety Codes of Practice 2012.
i
Attachment A
These compilations will be revoked and the codes of practice remade as 23 separate instruments to
improve accessibility of the codes on the ComLaw website and streamline the process for making future
updates to the codes.
The content of most of the codes of practice will remain unchanged. However, the following 17 codes of
practice have been revised and updated to correct minor technical and drafting errors:
Details of these amendments are listed in Attachment B as well as on the final page of each code of
practice. The revisions made to the codes of practice are limited to correcting minor technical and
drafting errors and do not raise any human rights issues.
This legislative instrument does not engage any of the applicable rights or freedoms.
Conclusion
This Legislative Instrument is compatible with human rights as it does not raise any human rights issues.
ii
Attachment B
Page
Code of Practice Amendment
No.
Demolition Work 14 Section 3.5 – text amended as the National Occupational Licensing
System has been discontinued.
Managing Noise 37 Appendix C – Table C1, the color coding in row 84 column 10h* (100)
and Preventing and row 83 column 12*h (96) `changed from red to yellow.
Hearing Loss at
Work
How to manage 10 Section 1.2 – the following text has been added to the final dot point in
and control the table:
asbestos in the ‘reduce the risk of the exposure to asbestos to below the exposure
workplace standard and notify the regulator about the emergency.’
www.nepc.gov.au/nepms/assessment-site-contamination>
29 Section 5.4 – text amended in 15th dot point to specify that the title of
the health monitoring guide is ‘Health Monitoring for Exposure to
Hazardous Chemicals - Guide for persons conducting a business or
undertaking’
62 The symbol ‘mm’ amended to ‘µm’ in the first row of the table.
Excavation Work 17 Section 4.1 – text in first paragraph amended so the two sentences are
joined by ‘unless’.
i
Attachment B
Page
Code of Practice Amendment
No.
14 Section 3.5 – text amended as the nationally endorsed first aid units of
competency have been superseded by new units.
Spray Painting 12 Removed ‘In addition’ at the start of the 2nd paragraph in section 2.2.
and Powder
Coating 35 Regulation 66 amended to simplify the wording.
19 Section 3.1 – text amended by adding ‘or’ at the end of the first dot
point.
www.ntc.gov.au/heavy-vehicles/safety/australian-dangerous-goods-
code/
www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/about/publications/pages/safety
-data-sheets-hazardous-chemicals-cop
www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/pictograms.html
ii
Attachment B
Page
Code of Practice Amendment
No.
www.unece.org/trans/danger/publi/ghs/ghs_welcome_e.html
apvma.gov.au/registrations-and-permits/labelling-codes
www.tga.gov.au/industry/scheduling-poisons-standard.htm
www.unece.org/trans/danger/danger.html
iii
Attachment B
Page
Code of Practice Amendment
No.
Managing 28 Section 5.1 – two references changed from ‘safe work procedure’ to
Electrical Risks ‘safe work principle’.
in the Workplace
34-36 Table of examples of construction work has been moved from section
1.1 to Appendix A.
10 New Section 1.6 titled ‘Other terms used in this code’ – includes
definitions of builder, subcontractor, owner-builder and designer.
11 Section 1.7 is titled ‘Who has health and safety duties relating to
iv
Attachment B
Page
Code of Practice Amendment
No.
construction work’.
11 Section 1.7 ‘Who has health and safety duties relating to construction
work’ now has specific information on multiple and shared duties,
including targeted information for the housing construction sector.
v
Attachment B
Page
Code of Practice Amendment
No.
24 Section 4.1 ‘Who is responsible for preparing a SWMS’ text has been
amended.
27 ‘Keeping the SWMS and making it available’ – text has been amended.
28 Section 5.2 ‘What must the WHS management plan contain’ – text has
been amended. Title in previous version was ‘Preparing a WHS
management plan contain?’
28 Section 5.3 ‘How to prepare a SWMS’ has been amended and refers to
further information in appendices.
vi
Attachment B
Page
Code of Practice Amendment
No.
31 Section 6.2 is now titled ‘Workplace specific induction training’ and text
has been amended.
Confined spaces 5 Section 1 – text amended in fourth dot point to read ‘asphyxiation
resulting from oxygen deficiency or immersion in a free-flowing
material, such as grain, sand, fertiliser, water or other liquids’.
Hazardous 23 Section 4.1 ‘Hierarchy of control’ table – text amended to read ‘Train
Manual Tasks workers to use control measures implemented when carrying out
manual tasks’.
vii
Attachment B
Page
Code of Practice Amendment
No.
36 Text amended in the first dot point of box to read ‘Warning: do not
reuse…’
17 Section 3.6 – text amended in the fifth dot point to reflect the
requirements in Australian Standard AS 4839.
viii